A cooling storage (hereinafter, referred to as a refrigerator) of a high capacity type (for example, 400 liters or more) is a type in which doors are opened or closed left and right. The refrigerator has been provided with a pair of doors installed at both left and right sides with respect to an approximately middle portion of an opening installed at a front of a storage compartment such as a refrigeration compartment formed in the refrigerator main body, and both the left and right doors have been configured to be supported by an upper and a lower hinge devices to be capable of opening and closing.
A structure in which a door slides in conjunction with an opening or closing operation of the door by the hinge device or the rotational center of the door is moved such that a rotational shaft of the door is switched to another relatively positioned rotational shaft has been published.
One example of such a hinge device is described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-301457. The hinge device described in the document is provided with a main body side member (a hinge plate mounted in a refrigerator main body) including a hinge pin and a door side member (a stopper plate mounted in a door) including a long hole into which the hinge pin is slidably inserted. A guide pin and a cam surface (cam portion) are respectively mounted at the door side member plate and the main body side member. When a door is opened from a closed position or is closed to a closed position, as the guide pin comes into contact with the cam surface, the door (specifically, a rotational center of the door) slides in a direction in which the long hole extends. Since the long hole provided in the door side member extends forward or toward the outside when the door is positioned at the closed position, the hinge pin and furthermore the door may slide in the direction in which the long hole extends. For example, as each hinge pin of the doors slides toward the outside in conjunction with opening the doors, a gasket mounted on a side surface of an arc side of one door is separated from a gasket mounted on a facing side surface of the other side door, or as the hinge pins slide forward in conjunction with openings the doors, end portions of rotational shaft sides of doors are separated from each portion of a refrigerator main body.
In addition, a door side member related to the Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-301457 is additionally provided with a lip portion which is engaged with a refrigerator main body to maintain a door at a closed position and simultaneously serves as a part of a cam unit when the door is opened from a closed position. That is, the door is opened from the closed position, the hinge device is configured to guide the sliding of the door by a long hole, a guide pin, and the lip portion coming into contact with each other.
Another example of a hinge device is described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-250171. The hinge device is provided with a main body side member (a peripheral side base), an intermediate member (an intermediate plate), and a door side member (a door side plate), and is disposed in a state in which side surfaces of members thereof are completely overlapped with a surface of the door when the door is positioned at a closed position. The main body side member and the intermediate member are connected to each other pivoted by a first rotational shaft, the intermediate member and the door side member are connected to each other pivoted by a second rotational shaft, and a guide groove which guides movements of the intermediate member and the door side member with respect to the main body side member and a contact portion are installed. When the door is opened, the guide groove and the contact portion guides movements of members such that the intermediate member and the door side member rotate about the first rotational shaft to a predetermined angle in a state in which the intermediate member and the door side member are overlapped, and only the door side member rotates about the second rotational shaft. In such a structure, rotational shafts of doors may be switched in conjunction with an opening or closing operation of the doors according to relative positions of the first rotational shaft and the second rotational shaft.